Midterms have made their return to Lakeland Regional High School starting this 2023-2024 school year with one addition, juniors are now exempt from finals along with seniors.
For the current school year, midterms will be scheduled to occur the week of January 22. Unlike finals, midterms will take place during the normal 80-minute block schedule spanning two days (one A-Day and one B-Day). All students, including seniors, will be required to take midterms, regardless of their current grade in a class, according to Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Mr. Michael Novak .
As for finals, the only change for this year is the addition of juniors as students who are allowed to be exempt from the finals. If a junior or senior has a cumulative A in one of their classes, they will be exempt from that class’s final. These exemptions are permitted because if a student has an A in their class, they have shown that they are sufficiently masterful in the subject, and a final is not needed.
Mr. Novak revealed when LRHS operated with just finals, some students expressed concern about the 10% weight towards their overall grade, another justification for bringing back the assessment. This rang true as negative impacts were seen due to the weight of finals. Now, with midterms reinstated, each test is worth 5% of a student’s grade for each course. This change was to eliminate the stress of the weight of finals alone and hopefully benefit students’ performance overall.
While this change was meant to improve student performance, not all students support it. Sivana Shancy, a senior, told the Ledger, “I don’t think it’s fair at all that I have been a student here for almost four years, had to take a final, and for the one year that I no longer need to, I have a midterm shoved in my face.”
However, not every student is against midterms. Julia Urban, a junior, says, “I think the idea of midterms is way better than just the finals. It is only 5%, [and] some of us will not have to take the finals, [so] we don’t have to stress about remembering stuff from September to June.”
While opinions on the implementation of midterms are divided, the only way to judge the true impact is to see the results of this year’s midterms and finals. As in previous years, Mr. Novak has placed his trust into the hands of teachers, giving them freedom if they implement a project or exam for an assessment, as long as it is approved by him.
Before the chaotic times of COVID-19 and the years of quarantine, LRHS operated with midterms. However, they were paused in the 2022-2023 school year due to the New Jersey Start Strong testing being implemented, which took away vital instructional time at the start of a year. The Start Strong testing was a method to evaluate the needs of students after the two-year pause due to COVID-19. Mr. Novak shared he wanted to bring back midterms sooner; however, it was not possible with the state testing in the fall.
